She started her acting career in 1948 and made over 240 films in the wuxia, kung fu, action, detective and Cantonese opera genres. Her films were successful at the box-office and she was one of the most popular superstars of the 1960 in Asia and Hong Kong.
Career
Ms Yu learnt Peking Opera at the age of eight and made her stage debut at the age of nine. She specialized in playing female warrior roles in which she could skillfully demonstrate her footwork by continuously juggling and kicking back twelve red-tasselled ''tuo shou'' spears, as seen in one of her famous stage Peking operas, '''' , and in the 1951 film ''Amazon on the Sea'' .
Her first movie was made in 1948, a wuxia film called ''The Kung Fu Couple'' . She was one of the three actresses in the 1950s who really knew martial arts. Off the screen, she was virtually a heroine: at the age of sixteen, she alone successfully fought off a group of gangsters with only a silky belt on the streets of Shanghai. She was able to do all the stunts, punches and skills by herself in all her action films.
Her early wuxia pictures from 1948 to 1957 were in both Mandarin and Cantonese dialogue, with stories intended to increase cooperation of the Northern Style and Southern Style of martial arts, as seen in ''The heroine of deadly darts'' in 1956. These remarkable wuxia films were mostly based on kung fu novels, e.g. ''Burning of the Red Lotus Monastery Pt 1 & Pt 2'' in 1950, ''The Golden Hairpin Pt 1 & Pt 3'' in 1963, ''Buddha’s Palm'' Pt 1 to Pt 4 '' in 1964 and ''The Burning of Pingyang City'' in 1965.
Her performances in Cantonese opera were quite different; she brought in a mixture of Peking Opera, in which she performed a lot of footwork, as in ''Suet Ting Shan and Fan Lai Hua - Meeting on the Weedy River'' in 1961, ''Giving birth on the bridge – the White serpent'' in 1962 and ''How Zhong Wuyan Conquered the West'' in 1962. She also played a male lead as seen in movies ''Execution of Lui Po'' at Pak Moon Lau in 1961, ''Two hunters in a pursuit'' in 1962 and ''The beauties'' in 1964. Apart from action films, she did a few rare contemporary and melodrama films, for example ''Midsummer night’s romance'' in 1953, ''Bachelors beware'' in 1960 and ''Two mouthy ladies from the north and south'' in 1965.
Her golden age of filming was between 1963 and 1966 ,when she made at least thirty movies in a year. Despite her fame and her leading position, she did take part in movies as a villainous woman, a role usually rejected by other actresses who were afraid of damaging their image. However, Ms Yu proved that her talent in acting was not limited to action films. Her surprise roles in ''The big revenge part 1 and 2'' and ''Heaven, Hell and Crystal Palace'' did not destroy her popularity nor upset her fans; instead they won the hearts of the audience.
She married famous Cantonese opera actor, Mr Mak Bing Wing, in 1966. Her last major movie was filmed in Taiwan and she made a guest appearance in ''Secret agent no.1'' in 1970. Soon after that she was completely retired from the limelight. She is now settled in San Francisco with her five children.
In 2004, Ms Yu was one of the celebrities honoured on the Avenue of Stars, Hong Kong. To date, Ms Yu still holds the record among actresses of making more than 170 wuxia movies. Though she did not gain any international awards before her retirement , she is recognised as a "queen" of martial artists and actresses by her fans for her devotion to, and excellence in, wuxia films.
Selected filmography
*''The revenge of the great swordsman Assassin Zhang Wenxiang''
*''The five heroes'deadly spears''
*''A story of three lovers, pt 1 & 2''
*''A heroine from Mount Emei''（峨嵋女俠 )
*''The dragon-phoenix swordsmen''（龍鳳雙劍俠)
*''The strange hero conquered the dragon''（怪俠赤屠龍)
*''Conqueress''（無敵楊家將)
*''The secret book, part one''
*''The village militia, pt 1 & 2''
*''The blonde hair monster''（黃毛怪人)
*''The birth of the Monkey King''（馬騮精出世)
*''The Road to the west''（唐三藏取西經)
*''Ingentious swords, pt 1 & 2''
*''Burning of the Red Lotus Monastery pt 1 & 2''
*''Valiant Pan An''
*''The iron wild goose pt 1 & 2''（鐵雁霜翎上下集)
*''The tiger in hunting''（臥虎藏龍)
*''Pat cham lau lan sai pat wan''
*''Spring blossoms''（花開富貴錦城春)
*''The purple lighting sword''（萬變飛狐)
*''The invincible kid Fang Shiyu''（無敵神童方世玉)
*''The all powerful flute pt 1 & 2''（簫聲震武林上下集)
*''Hero of midland''（中原奇俠)
*''Fire dragon and the mythical pearl''（火龍神珠)
*''Heroic days of the Great Ming Dynasty''
*''The avengers' tale pt 1 & 2''
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